Repoussoirs were plain girls and women hired by the French elite to flatter wealthy women

Like so many things that sound beautiful, La Belle Epoque (1890 to 1914) was belle only for the most privileged members of society. In Elizabeth Ross’s novel “Belle Epoque,” readers get a glimpse of the lengths to which the wealthy would go to make themselves look good. “Belle Epoque” is a novel about a girl who becomes a repoussoir, the term for a plain female who is hired to stand alongside a more attractive woman, to heighten the contrast and emphasize the wealthier woman’s superior appearance. Sort of like a bakery that puts the inexpensive plain donuts next to the pricier maple-glazed-bacon ones, to encourage customers to spend more.

It’s a reprehensible, yet undeniably effective, maneuver, and a job that didn’t make many Top 10 lists. In “Belle Epoque,” adolescent Maud runs away from provincial Brittany and the threat of an arranged marriage, dreaming of making a life for herself. But there aren’t many attractive opportunities for a young, inexperienced country girl in belle epoque Paris. Maud (like most of the readers who pick up this book) has never heard of repoussoirs, and when she responds to an advertisement, she is insulted and appalled.

But a short-lived stint in a laundry persuades Maud to change her mind. She bites her tongue when a prospective client examines her, searching for a foil for her daughter. Here’s Maud’s boss’s sales pitch:

“Now, Countess, here’s what I thought for your daughter.: He gestures for me to come forward. ‘A light ornamentation of plainness. She would complement Isabelle very nicely, I think. Nothing too flashy for her Paris debut at the Rochefort ball … Note her hair, the color of wet straw; the upturned nose; the tarnish of freckles on the complexion; and the unremarkable eyes — bovine in expression, dull in color. Lastly, the bony angles of the figure.'”

Oh, please, sir, do go on!

Actually, Isabelle lucks out. Two of her repoussoir colleagues are assessed thusly: “They’re both so hideous I can’t decide,” Madam Vary says, “Although maybe the piggy one shows off your figure better.”

What’s that sound? Susan B. Anthony spinning in her grave.

Get past the vile concept of repoussoirs, and “Belle Epoque” is an engaging story that paints an extraordinarily vivid image of life among the elite in 1890s Paris. Author Elizabeth Ross must have researched her topic exhaustively, salting the story with extraordinary detail. And talk about a great National History Day topic!

“45 Pounds, more or less,” is a story instantly familiar to anyone who’s ever had to go on a diet. Here, that is Ann, who is 16, size 17, and gives herself a 10-week deadline to lose 45 pounds — a number that would put her at the high end of her ideal weight range. Difficulty level: High. Extra challenge: A mother who is a perfect size 6, and survives on salads.

When Ann learns about a monthly diet system that provides prepackaged meals and an exercise video, she zeroes in like a pilgrim who’s discovered a holy relic. This, too, is familiar to chronic dieters. Oh, the the wonderfully iridescent promise of a new diet! (And oh, how unfailingly disappointing they are! How reliably those bubbles burst!) When Ann learns that the cost is a lot higher than the $80 advertised on TV, she falters but presses on, not without doubts:

“Then I think of Mom. Once she realizes I’m trying to lose weight again, she’ll be giddy and supportive and talk about it constantly. She’ll watch me even closer than she usually does. I can’t take that. I decide to keep this program a secret. I don’t care that Slimmer You says that support is essential to weight loss. They have never met my mother.”

To finance her ridiculously expensive mailed meals, Ann gets a job at the mall — at a pretzel stand. Her willpower is tested constantly. So is her patience; she works with a jerk who cheerily ignores company policy. But the jerk has a really cute cousin who seems to like Ann even in her extra-large body.

Author K.A. Barson follows Ann as she is tested with temptation, vexation, her mother’s discovery of the mail-order nutrition, and Ann’s own inadvertent insights into her calorie-obsessed mother and her little sister’s budding preoccupation with body image. “45 Pounds” is realistic and insightful in ways that, with luck, will prod teen readers to consider the motives behind the behavior of their own parents and other betes-noirs.

“45 Pounds (more or less)” by K.A. Barson, $16.99. Ages 12 and up.

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At 15, Inuit Nick Thrasher is an excellent bow hunter. As “Never Say Die” begins, he is hunting caribou in the Canadian Arctic, so he can bring organ meat to his ailing grandfather. But after he butchers his kill, he encounters a strange-looking bear that is fearless and aggressive.

The encounter shakes Nick and foretells future meet-ups. Then Nick gets a letter from his older half-brother, a National Geographic photographer, who wants Nick to come along on a four-week trip down the Yukon region’s Firth River.

A companion to “Mirror, Mirror,” Marilyn Singer’s “Follow, Follow” illustrates how the same words can tell two sides of a story.

Of course there are two sides to every story — sometimes more. What author Marilyn Singer accomplishes here, much as Lynne Truss did in her celebrated “Eats Shoots and Leaves”, is to show how dramatically the very same story, told in the very same words, can change.

In “Follow, Follow,” as with its predecessor “Mirror, Mirror”, Singer contrasts the viewpoints on opposite pages or columns. The text is the same on each side, but reversed.

So the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, as told by the vainglorious Emperor, begins, “Behold his glorious majesty: me. Who dares say he drained the treasury on nothing? Ha! This emperor has sublime taste in finery! Only a fool could fail to see.”

“Alex The Parrot: No Ordinary Bird, a true story,” by Stephanie Spinner and illustrated by Meilo So.

Alex, the African grey parrot who worked with graduate student Irene Pepperberg from 1977 to his death 20 years later, was almost singly responsible for proving that birds not only understand instructions, but can communicate their needs. He could ask to be tickled, to be sprayed with water, and could correctly communicate different objects’ size, color and quantity.

Humans have communicated withprimates, but Alex was the first documented case of an animal demonstrating an understanding of form, color and simple mathematics. He understood that “zero” and “none” were the same thing — a concept that human children reach only between ages 3 and 5.

Stephanie Spinner’s picture book is engaging and touching, and it would make an excellent launching point for an enterprising National History Day project.

In Eliot Schrefer’s novel “Endangered,” a girl tries to save herself and a bonobo chimpanzee when a wildlife sanctuary is taken over by military terrorists.

Eliot Schrefer‘s extraordinary young-adult novel “Endangered” is as brilliant as it is disturbing. Sophie goes to Kinshasa in Africa to visit her mother, who runs a sanctuary for bonobo chimpanzees.

Immediately, Sophie falls into a trap, buying a baby bonobo from an illegal trafficker on the street. Her mother has warned her against this — it only encourages traffickers to kill mother bonobos so they can snatch the babies and sell them — and the consequences of Sophie’s impulsiveness are swift and horrific.

But almost immediately, the trafficker incident is diminished as revolutionaries take over Kinshasa and surrounding territory, including the sanctuary and its workers. The soldiers are quick and lethal with their weapons. Sophie turns down a chance at a rescue that would mean certain death for Otto, the baby bonobo from the trafficker.

Can they elude the soldiers and find refuge for both Sophie and Otto? The writing is as elegant as it is fast-paced. This would be a brilliant holiday gift for young readers who also are aspiring human- and animal-rights activists.

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With winter storms again reinventing the Colorado landscape by blanketing the curves and angles with white, take time to appreciate the moments that turn adults into children again.

Carin Berger’s “A Perfect Day” follows young Emma through a snowy landscape punctuated by blue footprints, ski tracks and the unexpected hole or two, evidence of floundering in a deep drift.

This storm is benign. No trees or branches fall, only snowflakes. Snow helpfully rolls into perfect balls for the “tallest snowman ever. And the smallest.” Battlements adorn snow forts. Sleds and ice skates glide effortlessly. Snow angels cooperate smoothly with their creators. As dusk arrives, the streetlights acquire halos highlighted by the still-falling snow.

It’s a lovely book to share with young ones. (Please resist the temptation to point out the omission of gray and yellow snow, of stalled cars, and the sharply cold snowmelt puddles on the kitchen floor.)

[/media-credit] “Molly, By Golly!” is Dianne Ochiltree’s charming picture book about Molly Williams, a servant who helped volunteer firefighter brothers stop a house fire during a blizzard

Molly Williams was the cook for a member of one of New York City‘s volunteer fire companies in the early 1800s, and became famous when she pitched in, helping the men battle fires.

Dianne Ochiltree’s book compresses time and history to tell the dramatic story for which Williams is best known: A house fire erupted during a blizzard, and she joined the other volunteer firefighters, helping drag a pumper engine through the heavy snow. Strictly speaking, that wasn’t her baptism by fire (sorry) — one historical record has Williams responding to a blaze in 1815, three years before the blizzard that inspired “Molly, By Golly!” But she did indeed go on to help fight fires for years.